Purpose 

West Virginia University Hospitals (WVU Hospitals) is the only comprehensive stroke center in West Virginia, requiring robust, recurring, evidence-based stroke education for a wide variety of clinical roles. Meeting this ongoing educational obligation while creating engaging learning experiences for staff across multiple disciplines is an ongoing challenge.

The purpose of our Scooby-Doo©–inspired Stroke Care Fair was to design an interdisciplinary, gamified learning experience that improved stroke recognition, strengthened coordinated team response, and elevated collaboration across nursing, therapy, diagnostics, and interventional services. Guided by the NPD Practice Model (Harper & Maloney, 2022), the fair demonstrated how innovative education can spark engagement, improve confidence, and enhance clinical performance through creativity and interprofessional teamwork.

Inputs: Identifying Learning Needs and Gaps

A recent nursing learning needs assessment ranked neurology and neurosurgery among the top three educational priorities across inpatient units. Staff identified several areas where additional education was needed—including rapid stroke recognition, understanding the roles of different members of the stroke response team, identifying stroke subtypes and appropriate interventions, clarifying documentation expectations, and knowing escalation pathways of care.

Stroke education is required annually for both core and support providers. However, traditional lecture-based updates have become less effective for engaging a large and diverse audience. The target audience included ICU nurses, neuroscience nurses, speech language pathologists, physical and occupational therapists, neurointerventional radiology staff, cardiac noninvasive specialists, respiratory therapy professionals, case management staff, nursing assistants, and additional support personnel. Because stroke care requires coordinated action across many disciplines, the educational experience needed to reflect the collaborative nature of real clinical practice.

Recognizing this opportunity, the nursing professional development (NPD) team redesigned the stroke education program to be immersive, interdisciplinary, and memorable. The goal was not only to provide information but to create a learning environment that encouraged teamwork, clinical reasoning, and shared understanding of stroke care across departments.

This initiative aligned with several key NPD Standards of Practice. Staff are required to have continuing education on stroke care each year; core providers require eight credits and support providers four credits. The stroke care fair provides a robust unique educational opportunity inclusive of all disciplines (Standards 8, Advocacy and 9, Respectful and Equitable Practice). To achieve this education a core team of stroke education team members including and led by the NPD team members collaborated in the development and implementation (Standards 10, Communication and 11, Collaboration). On the day of the event small groups were established to alleviate anxiety in a playful theme setting. Open discussion was encouraged allowing for collaboration in a safe, supportive learning environment, promoting positive reinforcement while working on meaningful tasks to enhance learning (Standard 18, Environmental Health). For example, each interdisciplinary team was given a scenario to transfer their patient with functional deficits from a stroke. To successfully complete the tasks, the team needed to have open discussion and rely on the expertise of each team member’s role in stroke care.

To support the collaborative theme of the event, the education team selected a Scooby-Doo©–inspired mystery theme. The concept of a team solving clues and uncovering hidden answers closely mirrored the teamwork required in stroke care, making it an ideal framework for the educational experience.

Throughputs: Building the Mystery Together

Interdisciplinary Planning

Led by NPD practitioners, planning included educators, a physical therapist assistant unit-based educator, neurointerventional radiology staff, cardiac noninvasive specialists, rehabilitation therapists, and bedside nurses. Each discipline helped shape puzzles, clinical clues, and hands-on challenges aligned with their role in the real stroke response process.

A Fully Immersive “Break-In” Experience

The fair reimagined stroke care as a “break-in” room adventure staffed by Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby. Teams progressed through themed chambers, each representing distinct aspects of stroke care.

The Cryptic Cortex Chamber (Radiology and Interventional Radiology)

The Cryptic Cortex Chamber focused on neuroimaging and interventional radiology, allowing participants to engage with the diagnostic and treatment decisions involved in acute stroke care. In this station, teams simulated the process of mechanical clot retrieval while also interpreting thrombolysis in cerebral infarction (TICI) scores to determine the effectiveness of reperfusion. Working against the clock, participants experienced the urgency associated with interventional radiology (IR) reinforcing the time-sensitive nature of stroke treatment and the importance of rapid clinical decision-making.

The Bubble Chamber (Cardiac Diagnostics)

Adjacent to this station was the Bubble Chamber, which explored the role of cardiac diagnostics in stroke evaluation. Cardiac noninvasive specialists demonstrated how a patent foramen ovale (PFO), a small opening between the atria of the heart, can allow blood clots to bypass the lungs and travel directly to the brain, potentially leading to stroke. Participants reviewed echocardiography images and searched for diagnostic clues while using a blacklight to reveal hidden information embedded within the materials. This activity simulated the process of identifying subtle findings during a transient ischemic attack (TIA) workup and highlighted how cardiac abnormalities can contribute to cerebrovascular events.

The Mummy Room (Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy)

In this room, teams worked together to match patient deficits with the appropriate therapy services. This activity reinforced the importance of early rehabilitation in the stroke care pathway and helped clarify when each therapy discipline should be involved, highlighting the value of interdisciplinary collaboration in supporting patient recovery.

The Witch Room of Potions (Pharmacy)

Learners completed time-sensitive medication calculations, including thrombolytics and antiplatelets. Teams needed to recognize inclusion and exclusion criteria for their specific patient scenario. Interactive “potion bottle” props were used to make these crucial pharmacology concepts more engaging and memorable for participants.

Nursing-Led Puzzle Rooms

In one of the interactive chambers, participants used Velma’s iconic “glasses” to reveal hidden stroke symptoms embedded within the learning environment. The activity encouraged close observation and clinical reasoning as teams uncovered subtle neurological clues that might otherwise be missed in real patient assessments. A documentation puzzle further reinforced the importance of accurate stroke charting. Participants reviewed pieces of patient information and worked collaboratively to organize the findings into appropriate documentation, emphasizing how clear and precise charting supports timely diagnosis and treatment decisions. Nursing assistants were also engaged in a prioritization challenge designed specifically for their role in the care team. Through scenario-based tasks, they determined the most urgent patient needs while nursing colleagues provided supporting clinical rationale. This collaborative approach reinforced interdisciplinary teamwork and highlighted how each member of the care team contributes to effective stroke management.

Teams determined which clues to use by carefully analyzing the clinical information they encountered in each chamber and comparing those findings to known stroke presentations. Each activity revealed pieces of patient data such as symptoms, assessment findings, imaging hints, therapy needs, and treatment considerations. Participants had to interpret these clues collectively and decide which details were most clinically significant.

For example, the hidden symptoms revealed through Velma’s “glasses” provided neurological findings that helped differentiate between possible stroke types. The documentation puzzle required teams to organize patient information in a way that reflected accurate stroke charting, reinforcing how specific findings guide clinical decision-making. Meanwhile, the prioritization challenge encouraged participants to evaluate which patient concerns required immediate attention and which findings supported a particular diagnosis.

As teams progressed, they compared the clues they collected with the possible patient scenarios and stroke categories presented in the activity. By identifying patterns such as sudden neurological deficits, imaging findings, or the resolve of symptoms they were able to narrow down the patient identity and determine whether the scenario represented a hemorrhagic stroke, ischemic stroke, or transient ischemic attack. Once the stroke type was determined, teams matched their conclusions to the corresponding “villain”: Hector Hemorrhagic, Ingrid Ischemic, or Taia TIA.

This structured process encouraged learners to apply clinical reasoning rather than guessing, mirroring how healthcare providers synthesize assessment data, diagnostics, and treatment considerations when evaluating patients with suspected stroke.

Educational Foundations

The fair integrated best-practices, adult learning theories, and gamification strategies:

• Active learning: Learners moved between stations applying new information immediately.
• Gamification: Competition, puzzles, time limits, scoring, and “Scooby Snacks.”
• Storytelling: Characters and narratives improved engagement and retention.
• Interdisciplinary peer teaching: Each team member brought real clinical expertise to the puzzles.
• Case Study: Application of critical thinking skills.

This work is supported by evidence showing gamification enhances engagement, accountability, and knowledge retention in nursing education (Chatzea et al., 2025; Kotpan, 2025; Tavares, 2022).

Outputs: Measurable Impact

Evaluation data showed:

• 100 percent of participants met all learning outcomes.
• Staff reported improved confidence in stroke recognition and team communication.
• Interdisciplinary participants said the fair helped them “finally understand the roles of other departments” in stroke care.
• The fair fully met stroke education requirements for core and support providers.

Most importantly, days after the fair, a bedside nurse recognized subtle symptoms of an evolving stroke and initiated a stroke page early, crediting the learning experience for their rapid action. The patient was diagnosed with an acute stroke, demonstrating real-time transfer of learning to clinical practice.

Discussion:

The Scooby-Doo©–inspired Stroke Care Fair is a vivid example of how NPD practitioners function as leaders, collaborators, and change agents within complex healthcare systems.

NPD Practitioners:

• Conducted environmental scanning
• Identified and analyzed learning needs
• Led an interprofessional planning group
• Designed a fully immersive curriculum
• Incorporated gamification and evidence-based instructional design
• Ensured regulatory alignment
• Evaluated outcomes for impact

This initiative highlights the capacity of NPD practitioners to create educational environments that are not only informative but transformative—strengthening teamwork, enhancing skills, and improving patient outcomes.

Conclusion

Stroke care is fast paced, high stakes, and requires seamless communication across multiple disciplines. The Scooby-Doo©–inspired Stroke Care Fair demonstrated that required stroke education can be engaging, collaborative, and highly effective when built through a creative NPD-led framework.

By integrating evidence-based practice, gamification, and interdisciplinary teamwork, WVU Hospitals empowered staff at every level to recognize stroke symptoms quickly, act with confidence, and understand how each role contributes to patient outcomes.

Ruh-Roh! Looks like we solved another mystery and stroke education doesn’t have to be scary after all!

References

Chatzea, V. E., Logothetis, I., Kalogiannakis, M., Rovithis, M., & Vidakis, N. (2025). Digital serious games for undergraduate nursing education: A review of serious games key design characteristics and gamification elements. Information, 16(10), 877. https://doi.org/10.3390/info16100877

Harper, M. G., & Maloney, P. (2022). Nursing professional development: Scope and standards of practice (4th ed.). Association for Nursing Professional Development.

Kotpan, M. H. (2025). Game on or game over? Gamification from 360-degree perspectives in nursing education. Journal of Nursing Education and Practice. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12108018

Tavares, N. (2022). The use and impact of game-based learning on the learning experience and knowledge retention of nursing undergraduate students: A systematic literature review. Nurse Education Today, 117, 105484. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2022.105484